- Jim Bakker, 1940-2026
Source: Washington Post
“Jim Bakker, a televangelist who once led a multimillion-dollar religious empire with his wife, Tammy Faye, before a sex sandal tarnished his reputation and a conviction for fraud and conspiracy sent him to federal prison, died Oct. 5. He was 86. His second wife, Lori, announced the death but not cite a cause or say where he died. He had a stroke in 2020. … Tammy Faye died in 2007. Their son Jamie changed his first name to Jay and became a tattooed, body-pierced preacher in Minneapolis who espoused somewhat liberal social views. In addition to his wife and son, Mr. Bakker’s survivors include a daughter from his first marriage, Tammy Sue Bakker Chapman.” (10/06/26)
- Germany: Former spy chief arrested on suspicion of treason and espionage
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Germany’s former foreign spy chief has been arrested on suspicion of espionage and treason, prosecutors have said. August Hanning, 80, is under investigation for attempted treason and acting as an agent for a foreign intelligence service, the Office of the Federal Public Prosecutor General confirmed on Tuesday. Hanning was president of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service between 1998 and 2005. He was arrested in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen in southern Germany. His former chief of staff, partially identified as Manfred D, was arrested in Steinfurt in western Germany on suspicion of ‘aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage’. … The statement did not reveal who the two men were suspected of spying for or which country the foreign agent worked for, adding that ‘it has yet to be determined if the material reached the intended recipient’.” (10/06/26)
- Trump orders firing squad killing for mass shooter who killed 13 soldiers
Source: Sky News [UK]
“Donald Trump has ordered a firing squad to [kill] an ex-US army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in Texas, the Pentagon said. The US President approved the method to put Nidal Hasan to death by army firing squad in a military [killing]. It came at the recommendation of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell wrote on X. The ex-army major killed 13 at Fort Hood in a 2009 shooting spree with a laser-sighted handgun that he later described as retaliation for US wars in the Middle East and to protect Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.” (10/06/26)
- Trump agrees to have his super PAC, not taxpayers, pay for his ads
Source: SFGate
“In response to a major backlash, President Donald Trump says he will stop using taxpayer funds for television advertisements glorifying himself and instead tap his super PAC to cover such costs going forward. Trump defended the use of at least $1.5 million in federal funds to pay for the ads, saying Monday that they were ‘positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.'” (10/06/26)
- Starbucks sued over ‘sugar-free’ claims for protein beverages
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser
“A proposed class-action lawsuit filed Friday in Seattle federal court accuses Starbucks of falsely advertising eight of its protein beverages as ‘sugar-free’ when they actually contain between 13 and 21 grams of naturally occurring sugar per serving. The lawsuit claims the Seattle-based coffee giant misled consumers who ordered 20-ounce or 24-ounce ‘venti’ sizes of its new protein-focused drinks. The complaint states that while the beverages may not contain added sugars, the milk used in them introduces lactose, a form of natural sugar, exceeding federal limits for ‘sugar-free’ labeling.” (10/05/26)
- Canada: Separatist party projected to win Quebec election, adding new test to nation’s unity
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Canada’s Parti Québécois (PQ) is projected to have won enough seats in Quebec’s provincial election to form a minority government, though the separatists will need other parties’ support to achieve their aims – such as a new public vote on independence. It marks the first time the PQ has been in power since 2014, with Paul St-Pierre Plamondon set to become the province’s new leader. In his victory speech, St-Pierre Plamondon again raised his independence plans but vowed to be ‘the premier of everyone in Quebec’. The result could prove a fresh test for Prime Minister Mark Carney, also setting up confrontations with Québec over issues like immigration and the monarchy. In its effort to achieve independence, the PQ has pledged to hold a referendum on separating from the rest of Canada.” (10/06/26)
- Kosovo: Protesters Clash With Police Over War Crimes Court Law
Source: US News & World Report
“Protesters clashed with police outside Kosovo’s government and parliament buildings on Monday, calling for lawmakers to pass legislation that would limit the powers of a Kosovo war crimes court in The Hague. The protest came weeks after the court sentenced former President Hashim Thaci and three others to a combined 81 years in prison for war crimes. Police fired tear gas and used water cannon to disperse demonstrators who threw firecrackers and stones at officers guarding parliament and government buildings in central Pristina.” (10/05/26)
- Spain: Regime lifts arrest warrant for Catalan separatist Carles Puigdemont
Source: SFGate
“A Spanish Supreme Court judge lifted the arrest warrant for Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont on Tuesday, clearing the way for him to return home without fear of detention for the first time in nearly a decade. Puigdemont, Catalonia’s former regional president, fled [Catalonia] for Belgium in 2017 after leading a failed attempt to break Catalonia away from Spain. He has since avoided attempts by Spain to have him sent back to face a court, while many of his confidants and supporters spent time in prison. Now he looks set to go back to Spain just when the country is preparing for a national election next month. It is too early to know how his return would impact the campaign, but given his unpopularity in most of Spain, it is likely that opposition parties would try to use his return against incumbent Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.” (10/06/26)
- TX: Homeowner fatally shoots man who broke into home after fleeing disturbance, police say
Source: KSAT News
“A homeowner shot and killed a 36-year-old man who broke into his home after he fled a nearby disturbance Sunday night, according to the Lytle Police Department. Just after 10:30 p.m. Sunday, officers responded to the 14600 block of Butch Cassidy Street in the Saddle Ridge Estates subdivision after reports of a disturbance. In a news release, Lytle police said witnesses reported that the man appeared ‘aggressive and out of control’ before fleeing the scene. The man entered a nearby residence that had no apparent connection to him. Police said the home appeared to have been selected at random. After the man entered the home and cornered the homeowner, police said the homeowner used a firearm to protect himself and his family. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.” (10/05/26)
- Annual Fundraiser: Tap … Tap … Is This Thing On?
Hey, everyone …
After a not too terrible weekend, our annual fundraiser had its first “zero-dollar day” yesterday. We remain stuck (as of 5am on October 6) at $115 toward our goal of $5,503 (actually $2,751.50, since reader GL is generously “matching funds” for the second half of the goal IF we can raise the first half).
Please support the freedom movement’s daily newspaper and help us get on track to reach the goal:
https://news.rationalreview.com/support-rrnd
And have a great day!
Yours in liberty,
Tom Knapp
Publisher
Rational Review News Digest / Freedom News Daily - Russia: Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow region kills two
Source: Yahoo! News
“Ukraine attacked the Moscow region with around 650 drones overnight, killing two people and damaging dozens of residential buildings, Russian authorities said early on Tuesday. Most of the drones were destroyed by air defences at long range, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on Telegram. He said 105 drones were destroyed as they approached the Russian capital. In addition to the two deaths, nine people were injured in the attack, according to Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region. It was not initially possible to verify these figures.” (10/06/26)
https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/ukraine-launches-major-drone-attack-080335186.html
- Trump signs executive order temporarily leashing diesel tax dogs
Source: CNN
“President Donald Trump signed an executive order late Monday aimed at bringing down near-record diesel prices by waiving restrictions on cheaper red-dyed diesel. Speaking at a campaign event in Nebraska, a state hit hard by the spike in diesel prices, Trump said the order will ‘allow anyone to purchase tax-free red-dyed diesel for any reason.’ … Red-dyed diesel is the same as regular diesel. It’s just untaxed and dyed red to distinguish it for off-road use only, such as for tractors or industrial purposes. … The fact sheet says the order directs the Treasury secretary, in consultation with the secretary of defense, to defer payment for on-road use of dyed diesel fuel for the rest of the year without interest or penalties and to ‘explore pathways to eliminate the obligation to pay the deferred taxes.'” [editor’s note: So the taxes aren’t actually coming off, they’re just getting extorted later – TLK] (10/05/26)
https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/05/business/trump-diesel-prices-executive-order
- Turkish, Pakistani regimes agree Saudi Arabia military deployment under Mecca pact
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Turkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have agreed to activate ‘deterrence measures’ under a mutual defence pact and rapidly deploy forces to the Gulf kingdom to counter attacks by Yemen’s Houthis. The decision was announced on Monday after the three countries’ defence and foreign ministers held an emergency meeting in Riyadh. It marked the first time the alliance – known as the Mecca Alliance for Defence – has been invoked since it was signed on August 7. … The announcements came hours after forces aligned with Yemen’s [Saudi puppet regime] launched a counteroffensive to retake territory the Iran-aligned Houthis captured last month. ” (10/05/26)
- US commodities regulator proposes new federal crypto oversight rules
Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“The US commodities regulator proposed on Monday a new federal framework for cryptocurrency exchanges that offer leveraged digital asset trading, seeking to bring parts of the spot crypto market under federal oversight weeks after Congress failed to advance comprehensive crypto regulation. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s proposed rules would effectively allow [sic] US crypto exchanges to opt into a federal regulatory framework instead of relying primarily on a patchwork of state money-transmitter licenses, the agency said. The proposed rules make use of a specific authority the CFTC has to oversee margined or leveraged spot assets. The CFTC has long sought authority to regulate spot cryptocurrency markets – which currently operate in a regulatory grey area – but only Congress has the ability to provide the regulator with that purview.” (10/05/26)
https://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/article317498369.html
- ICC unseals arrest warrants for four Taliban leaders wanted on gender persecution charges
Source: Ottumwa Courier
“The International Criminal Court on Monday unsealed arrest warrants against four senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of the crime against humanity of gender persecution against women, girls and members of the LGBTQI+ community in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in 2021. The court said in a statement that warrants were issued in July and September last year for the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani. Also wanted are Education Minister Habibullah Agha and Minister of Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadim. The existence of the warrants against Akhundzada and Haqqani was revealed last year, but the warrants remained sealed. With the Taliban in control of Afghanistan and the court having no police force to execute warrants, the prospect of any of the suspects being arrested is remote.” (10/05/26)
- Libya: Teachers’ strike escalates as union demands major education reforms
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“Teachers in Libya have escalated their protests over salaries into an open-ended strike at public schools. Protests began on September 13, the day the school year was due to start. Sit-ins were held outside schools and government buildings in the capital, Tripoli. Two weeks later, Libya’s teachers union stepped up the campaign with a nationwide strike. It has kept students out of classrooms across the country. On Sunday, several Libyan unions representing other sectors threatened to join the strike unless the government entered talks to address a cost of living crisis.” (10/05/26)
- SCOTUS rejects appeal of school’s political t-shirt censorship
Source: Associated Press
“The Supreme Court is rebuffing an appeal from a Michigan woman fighting a school district’s ban on shirts with the phrase ‘Let’s Go Brandon,’ a jab at then-President Joe Biden with a coded reference to profanity. The mother of two boys says their First Amendment rights were violated when they were told to take off the sweatshirts she bought them for Christmas in 2022. A lower court disagreed, finding that the veiled vulgarity of the phrase, which functions as a stand-in for ‘F-— Joe Biden,’ allows schools to ban it. The woman’s attorneys argued that the decision wrongly gives school officials wide latitude to squelch political speech based on their personal ideas of what is vulgar. The phrase itself doesn’t contain any swear words or sexual implications, they said.” (10/05/26)
- Russia: Lab worker dies of suspected plague as 200 enter medical observation
Source: NBC News
“The death of a worker at an anti-plague laboratory in Russia has prompted officials to put at least one hospital facility under quarantine and nearly 200 people reportedly under medical observation as of Monday. The female staffer at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East died from a ‘pneumonia of undetermined’ origin last week, according to the regional governor, Igor Kobsev. He said no ‘microorganisms linked to the employee’s professional activities were detected’ in her body, and that there had been ‘no new cases’ of illness among other employees of the lab. … Russian media cited officials saying that nearly 200 people who had been in contact with the woman had been placed under precautionary medical observation.” (10/05/26)
- SCOTUS Rejects Roy Moore’s Push to Restore $8.2 Million Defamation Verdict
Source: US News & World Report
“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Roy Moore’s push to restore an $8.2 million defamation verdict over a 2017 Senate race ad funded by a Democratic-aligned super PAC. Justices declined to hear Moore’s appeal of a lower court decision that vacated the large verdict. The outcome keeps in place the decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that erased a jury’s decision that Moore had been defamed by the ad. It was a victory for Senate Majority PAC, which funded the ad, and argued it was truthful. … Leigh Corfman said Moore inappropriately touched her in 1979 when she was 14 and he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney. Moore denied the accusation. Other women said Moore dated them, or asked them out on dates, when they were older teens.” (10/05/26)
- Pakistan: Imran Khan supporters march to demand his release after talks failed
Source: ABC News
“More than 5,000 supporters of imprisoned former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan began a dayslong march toward Islamabad on Sunday to demand his release, after talks between the government and the opposition fell through. The looming showdown threatens to deepen Pakistan’s political uncertainty at a time when the country is also grappling with a surge in militant attacks. Khan is current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s main political rival and has been imprisoned since 2023 on corruption and other charges that he and his party say are politically motivated.” (10/05/26)
- Equality Before the Law Does Not Mean Equality of Subjective Feelings
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Wanjiru Njoya“Equality before the law is a highly-contested principle, largely because there is no consensus on what it means for everyone to be treated equally. Does equality before the law mean that nobody believes himself to be superior or inferior to others? Does the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee that we must all enjoy the same social status? Can the Constitution ensure that no one feels slighted, ignored, or overlooked? Do citizens have a constitutional right to feel welcome and included in everything?” (10/06/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/equality-law-does-not-mean-equality-subjective-feelings
- Israel, a Jewish and democratic state, maintains Arab citizens’ representation
Source: Christian Science Monitor
by staff“In the run-up to Israel’s Oct. 27 election, the country’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that a key minority (the two main parties representing Arab Israelis) could not be banned from participating. The decision serves as a marker of democracy in a political system that protects the rights of minorities in instances when one side has an overwhelming majority. The ban, recently approved by an election commission dominated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, would have effectively disenfranchised the one-fifth of Israeli citizens who are of Arab Palestinian heritage. In the wake of the October 2023 terrorist attack by Hamas, many right-wing Jewish Israelis have pushed for not only punitive military action in Gaza and forcible expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, but also curtailment of the rights of Israeli Arabs.” (10/05/26)
- Terror of being called racist crushing free speech in America
Source: Fox News
by Eli Steele“When my father, Shelby Steele, author, columnist and senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, began publishing his essays on race in the late 1980s, my teenage self was often by his side when he gave speeches. After each speech, the same scene unfolded as a crowd of people gathered to the side of the podium, each wanting a word. I remember one man in particular who hurried to reach my father first. He wore a corduroy sports coat with leather elbow patches. He said, ‘Dr. Steele, that was truly a remarkable speech. I want to thank you for saying the things you said up there.’ My father thanked him, and the man lowered his voice and leaned in as if to share a conspiracy. ‘You know I can’t say those things.'” (10/06/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/eli-steele-terror-called-racist-crushing-free-speech-america
- Copycat Pharmacies and the Peptide Market
Source: Independent Institute
by Raymond J March“The emerging compounding ecosystem can drive faster development and wider availability when allowed.” (10/06/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/10/06/copycat-pharmacies-peptide-compounding/
- Class Dismissed: Why Britain Should Stop Keeping Score
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie“Arthur Scargill once boasted that he had never betrayed his class. It was meant as a badge of honour. It should have been read as a warning. We understand loyalty to family. We understand loyalty to village, county and country. These are places and people we belong to and most would not wish to leave. Class is different. It is a condition, not a community. And for most of British history the working-class condition meant hard labour, low pay and narrow horizons. To pledge loyalty to that is to pledge loyalty to the very thing a sensible person would want to escape. It turns the miner’s son who becomes a surgeon into a deserter. It makes ambition look like apostasy. That is the first problem with class. It is a cage that congratulates you for staying inside.” (10/06/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/class-dismissed-why-britain-should-stop-keeping-score
- ICE Has Got to Go
Source: CounterPunch
by Eve Ottenberg“Like Russia, the U.S. is huge and hugely multicultural. In fact, those are the two biggest multicultural nations on earth. Like Russia, U.S. population growth stems from its so-called minority population. Like Russia, that population is largely non-white. Unlike Russia, where the fast-growing minority groups include Muslims and Asians, the U.S. Hispanic ‘minority’ is Christian and, quite mistakenly in my view, much of it pro-Trump. Again, unlike Russia, which has a leader, president Vladimir Putin, who openly espouses traditional values and is just as openly enthusiastic about the minorities he governs, Trump scorns American minorities and unleashes a murderous Gestapo against them. Putin would never dream of such idiocy.” (10/06/26)
- Unlike Sheeran, Zach Bryan read the room and wore the right shirt
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Jack Hunter“Just three weeks after American hip-hop artist Macklemore was kicked off megastar Ed Sheeran’s tour over the rapper’s ‘Free Palestine’ messaging, it looks increasingly obvious that Sheeran overestimated the power of pro-Israel cancel culture and underestimated the American fanbase. Last week, country superstar Zach Bryan wore a ‘Free Palestine’ t-shirt during his concert at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts. His band wore similar attire. Robert Kraft, who owns Gillette Stadium and was primarily responsible for pressuring Sheeran to ditch Macklemore last month from the tour, was nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, Sheeran’s back-up band and all of his opening acts on the tour dropped out to support Macklemore, who went on to launch his own Free Palestine Tour this fall as his own popularity is experiencing a resurgence. The three-date European leg of the tour sold out immediately.” (10/06/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/israel-palestine-2678007438/
- Are We Becoming Gondor?
Source: American Greatness
by Victor Davis Hanson“The novelist J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) repeatedly insisted that his epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings, written from 1937 to 1949, was not allegorical. But some scholars have argued otherwise, detecting contemporary, 20th-century influences in his storytelling. Tolkien fought at the nightmarish Battle of the Somme in World War I. He witnessed the slaughter of the youth of Europe in the trenches that lived with him the rest of his life. In the 1930s, he despaired over both the rise of the godless Communist Soviet Union and the transformation of a once-enlightened Germany into a monstrous fascist regime. Tolkien, a devout Catholic, was dismayed not only by the growing power of these totalitarian empires but also by the West’s urbanized industrialism and secularized modernism on the eve of World War II. In middle age, he lived through the even greater slaughter of World War II.” (10/06/26)
- How Can We Build a Post-Capitalism World?
Source: Common Dreams
by Cynthia Kaufman“The billionaires are putting our world at risk through support for unregulated AI, funding the fossil fuel industry, and undermining democracy. They are using their unprecedented levels of power to lead us toward multiple pathways of total human annihilation. Now is a good time to reflect on ways to challenge capitalism, a driving force behind the madness we face. And yet, on one side we have many people who are hesitant to name capitalism as a force behind destruction we face. On the other side, many of those few who do name capitalism use outdated and unhelpful frameworks for understanding how to challenge capitalism. Sven Beckert’s Capitalism: A Global History (Penguin 2025) is a book worth reading if you are interested in building a world past capitalism. Beckert’s original approach to understanding capitalism helps us to see possibilities for challenging it in the present precarious time we are living in.” (10/06/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/build-world-post-capitalism
- In Retrospect, the ‘Access Hollywood’ Tape Marked the End of the Gender Politics Debate
Source: The Bulwark
by Ilyse Hogue“Most political professionals behaved as though Donald Trump’s bid for the presidency was a joke: an elaborate ruse to set up a new reality show. The internecine wars that viciously pitted Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters against each other were largely in the rearview mirror, and Democrats were busy measuring Oval Office drapes and donning ‘I’m With Her’ t-shirts. … So when the Washington Post broke the Access Hollywood story on the afternoon of October 7—ten years ago this week—the immediate reaction in the D.C. corridors of power was disgust mixed with faux shock commingled with barely contained glee. The three-minute clip played to all of the priors of the Democratic establishment, which had remained convinced America would never elect this con man, now confirmed as a raging misogynist. Uttering ‘grab ’em by the pussy’ to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush was surely the final nail in Trump’s coffin.” (10/06/26)
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/access-hollywood-metoo-ten-years-on-social-contract
- Let Them Eat Chicken!
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Charles Goyette“[T]he St. Louis Fed offers us YouTube videos on How to Pay Down Credit Card Debt, and Budgeting 101 (‘Making a budget is like planning a road trip for your personal finances’). The self-described ‘very stable genius’ in the White House was not able to contemplate that his elective war on Iran would see the Strait of Hormuz shut down and America’s security umbrella over the Persian Gulf states get pummeled. Which falls into the category of their business. Yet his administration explains to us how to do our grocery shopping. Which falls into the category of our business. It is arrogant, presumptuous, and insulting. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins offered the latest installment recently. Confronted with complaints about soaring beef prices, Rollins had a straightforward solution: ‘If beef is too expensive…you can eat chicken, pork, salmon, eggs.’ Or cake?” (10/06/260
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/let-them-eat-chicken/
- The Republican Plan to Buy the Election Got Too Expensive
Source: Washington Monthly
by Bill Scher“New data shows the GOP’s money advantage has narrowed because it relies too heavily on super PACs, which pay more for broadcast ads.” (10/06/26)
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2026/10/06/the-republican-plan-to-buy-the-election-got-too-expensive/
- Trump’s Big Bluff on Iran
Source: Antiwar.com
by John Mearsheimer“The Trump administration and its supporters – including the Wall Street Journal editorial page – are working overtime these days to spin the news around the Iran war to make it appear that the US is winning and Tehran had better submit to Washington’s demands before it is wrecked, maybe even ‘annihilated.’ Indeed, Trump is preparing the option of bringing the military hammer down on Iran after the midterm elections if Tehran has not surrendered by then. In effect, Trump and his supporters are waging a ‘maximum pressure campaign’ against Iran in the mainstream media. This campaign is sure to fail.” (10/06/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/john-mearsheimer/2026/10/05/trumps-big-bluff-on-iran
- Can Other States Learn From California’s Property Tax Experiment?
Source: The Daily Economy
by Patrick Carroll“Capping property taxes isn’t all upside, but California’s Proposition 13 shows how tax limits can protect property owners from sudden increases and provide greater predictability.” (10/06/26)
- Private Companies Will Finance the Welfare State
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Wojciech Wyszomierski“Since the start of the 21st century, Poland has seemed like a textbook example of sustainable development. The break from a centrally planned economy in the late 1980s, the opening of the market, and relatively low labor costs attracted substantial foreign capital. GDP began to grow rapidly, and for the first time, money appeared in Poles’ pockets. While Western Europe focused on developing the welfare state, Poland consistently reinvested its earnings …. While in 1990, Poland’s GDP per capita did not exceed $2,000, 20 years later it had risen to over $12,000. However, not everyone was pleased with this. Poorer residents, bombarded with reports of an improving economic situation, began to voice their belief more and more boldly that they were entitled to a slice of the state’s pie.” (10/06/26)
https://fee.org/articles/private-companies-will-finance-the-welfare-state/
- Brazil’s right turn reflects the global appeal of Trump’s American pride
Source: New York Post
by Daniel McCarthy“Latin America is turning right, and it’s a vindication for President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In some ways, the Cold War never really ended in the Western Hemisphere: socialism has haunted the nations of Central and South America long after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the same Cuban regime the Soviet Union propped up for decades remains in power to this day. The hard left thought it had cemented control over Venezuela, too, thanks to Hugo Chavez and Nicolàs Maduro — until American forces snatched Maduro right out of his bed back in January and took him to New York to stand trial.” (10/05/26)
- AI Versus Everything Else
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman“Until now, discussions of the potential economic problems created by the AI boom have mostly focused on the future. Will it destroy millions of jobs? Is there a bubble and will it cause a severe recession if it bursts? Will it destroy humanity? While these are doubtless very important questions, attempts to answer them are at best educated guesses. We don’t have to guess, however, about one major effect of the AI boom, because it’s happening right now: Massive spending on data centers is crowding out investment in everything else in the economy.” (10/06/26)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/ai-versus-everything-else
- Radical Decentralization: Liechtenstein’s Quiet Revolution
Source: Cobden Centre
by Thorsten Polleit“The world’s highest per-capita incomes are found in small political units—such as Monaco, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Singapore, and the Cayman Islands. Economically, the finding is easy to explain: small political units are not autarkic; they compete internationally for talent and capital. That is why they must treat their residents and firms well and offer attractive living conditions and a business-friendly framework. Above all, small political units must keep the tax burden low, remain peaceful toward their neighbors, and refrain from military adventures. Yet even small political units are not immune to the abuse of state power.” (10/06/26)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2026/10/radical-decentralization-liechtensteins-quiet-revolution/
- What the Bond Market Reveals about Congress, the National Debt and the Middle Class
Source: Independent Institute
by Alexander William Salter“High bond yields informally signal that the government absorbs too much of the nation’s scarce capital.” (10/05/26)
https://www.independent.org/article/2026/10/05/bond-market-revelations-congress-debt-middle-class/
- The Flaw In The Barack Obama Fantasy About Women In Government
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
“Recently, a speech by former President Barack Obama about his fantasy of having women in charge went viral. ‘If you put women in charge of every government for like two years and then just kind of saw, alright, how are things going? I have a strong belief that things would — they wouldn’t be perfect — but they’d be better,’ he said in a discussion with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin at Salem State University. This is not the first time he has expressed his fantasy that if women ran every country, living standards would improve and we’d have fewer wars. … I did my best, and could find no scientific evidence that if women ran the governments of the world, we’d have more peace and/or a higher standard of living. The reality of it is, though, that to achieve these things, we need less reliance on gender and race, and more a focus on ideology.” (10/06/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/the-flaw-in-the-barack-obama-fantasy
- The Solution to University City’s Budget Problems Is Privatization
Source: Show-Me Institute
by David Stokes“University City is facing significant budget problems this year, driven in large part by costs associated with things the city does itself that private companies could better handle. As a resident of University City who works for a free-market policy organization that often supports government privatization, you can imagine my reaction to being given the opportunity to put my knowledge to work for my hometown. ‘Like a kid in a Delmar-Loop candy store’ would be the quickest analogy.” (10/05/26)
- The Rise of Gig Economy Warfare
Source: New York Times
by Katrin Bennhold“At first, it seemed like a large terror attack on a British air base had been thwarted. Then the story turned stranger. The five men arrested last week had been traveling in white vans in the middle of the night near a base in southern England that the U.S. has used in its war against Iran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had warned over the summer that ‘any base used to launch attacks on Iranian territory’ would be ‘a legitimate target.’ The arrests suggested that threat had materialized. But the details we’ve learned since then have been confusing. The men in the white vans? Not radicalized ideologues or hardened operators, but ‘unwitting chumps,’ one official said. … British security officials have warned for years about the dangers of these sorts of plots. Russia pioneered them; Iran has since taken up the mantle.” (10/05/26)
- How the Courts Became a Safe Haven for Corporations
Source: The American Prospect
by Zachary Groz“Last week, a federal district judge paused enforcement of a New York state law that banned landlords from using a centralized algorithmic platform to set rents. That platform, run by software company RealPage, had been the subject of a three-year federal antitrust investigation, which found the firm had facilitated something akin to a pricing cartel among rental property owners. Using a combination of public and proprietary data from landlords, the company had created an AI-powered tool that allowed property owners to coordinate rent hikes, suppressing competition and maximizing profits. While the Trump administration eventually settled the federal case, municipalities took notice and, starting with San Francisco in 2024, began outlawing the practice. Philadelphia, Berkeley, and Minneapolis followed suit, and late last year, New York took those regulatory measures a step further, becoming the first state to prohibit algorithmic rent-setting.” (10/06/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/10/06/how-courts-became-safe-haven-for-corporations/
- AI Made the List—but Humans Still Did the Killing
Source: Foreign Policy
by Sharon Weinberger“In NAZA, no one is worrying about rogue AI killing us off—that’s more a concern for Silicon Valley companies looking to raise capital. Rather, the film is rightfully concerned about the way that AI allows the military to justify killing ever more people, even as these systems absolve humans of the moral responsibility for choosing targets. ‘My role is entirely technical,’ says one IDF member, describing his part in the Gaza war. In this sense, AI gives soldiers a certain remove from the decision-making and even imbues such systems with virtue, since machines aren’t driven by hatred. … if AI is supposed to transfer responsibility for killing from humans to computers, and thus absolve humans of moral responsibility, it doesn’t quite work.” (10/05/26)
- Why is there a growing rebellion against the traditional tax system in the States?
Source: The Price of Liberty
by Nathan Barton“Of course, the regressives and other enemies of liberty will tell you it is because people (especially those awful libertarians and sickening followers of Christ) are greedy and selfish, have no real compassion for the poor or people who wear different skin (or clothes) than they do, and the whole long litany we hear constantly. Clearly, TPOL and many of our readers disagree. (So we are even more evil, right?) But the rebellion against taxes is real, and the reasons people are rebelling are real and growing.” (10/05/26)
- The Three-Party Problem
Source: The Dispatch
by Yascha Mounk“The smart money in American politics has always bet against the rise of third parties. The reasons are both obvious and numerous. … The supposedly smart money is often based on conventional wisdom. But the problem with the conventional wisdom is that it is usually right for a long stretch—before suddenly proving to be disastrously wrong. Take, as an example, the longstanding conviction among political scientists studying the American primary system that party insiders ultimately decide who gets the presidential nomination, a supposed certainty that blinded large parts of the field to Trump’s rise in 2016. When it comes to third parties, we may now be approaching a similar paradigm shift.” (10/05/26)
https://thedispatch.com/article/third-parties-independents-voter-discontent/
- Moderation in the Pursuit of Liberty
Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg“Wall Street Journal columnist Barton Swaim’s ‘A Suggestion for Young Radicals’ to embrace moderation (October 1) might seem to bring the second least appealing news hook for a commentator whose outlet is named after the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison who famously asserted that he would rather ‘tell a man whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm’ than ‘use moderation in a cause like the present … I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD.’ At least Swaim’s contribution keeps the Journal‘s op-ed page going when even the New York Times has moved on to so-called ‘guest essays.'” (10/05/26)
- Trump’s Other War
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul“As the midterm election draws near, a number of Republicans in tough races are distancing themselves from President Trump’s war. The war is unpopular because it has inflicted economic pain on the already-suffering American people. No, I am not talking about the Iran War. I am talking about President Trump’s tariff war.” (10/05/26)
https://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/trumps-other-war
- Trump’s Antipathy Toward the Separation of Powers
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“It shouldn’t surprise us that Trump would want little or no interference with his MAGA vision and program. After all, why else would the Framers incorporate the separation of powers concept into the Constitution? They knew that rulers inevitably had a propensity toward exercising dictatorial powers to implement their vision and their plans. After all, Trump isn’t the first head of state to have this propensity.” (10/05/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/10/05/trumps-antipathy-toward-the-separation-of-powers/
- The President Doesn’t Have Unlimited Power to Impose Import Bans
Source: Lawfare
by Ilya Somin“Like tariffs, import restrictions are a congressional power under the Constitution, not an executive one. Thus, the president cannot impose import bans without congressional authorization. While some statutes delegate import restriction authority to the president, that power is strictly limited. And, as with tariffs, interpreting these authorities in a way that gives the president a blank check to impose import bans would run afoul of the major questions doctrine and constitutional nondelegation. It remains to be seen whether Trump or a future president might decide to claim sweeping authority to impose import bans at will. But when and if such an effort materializes, courts should strike it down.” (10/05/26)
- Anthropic’s creepy savants are trying to play God while pushing frightening utopian fantasies
Source: New York Post
by Miranda Devine“The artificial intelligence company Anthropic has been busy for months wining and dining religious leaders and influencers to try to push their self-serving agenda and utopian fantasies. The Vatican’s response has been to pour cold water on bizarre claims that Anthropic is embarking on its own ‘creation story’ to give birth to new sentient beings in the form of computer software. Billionaire co-founder Chris Olah, a 34-year-old Canadian-born evangelical who has turned his back on Christianity, thinks their AI model, Claude, has feelings and a sort of moral consciousness. He’s worried about its ‘mental health’ and believes it experiences human emotions like love and ‘suffers perpetually’, The New York Times reported.” (10/04/26)
- Government Should Liquidate Itself
source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith“An unalienable right is not possible under a government that claims a monopoly on the legal use of force. Governments of that type, found everywhere, had the energy and incentive to create the hell its media tries to hide. Potemkin villages are abundant. A presidential candidate who pledged to liquidate government in an orderly fashion and return governance to free market institutions and incentives, as we mostly had during the Revolutionary period, is our only peaceful hope.” (10/05/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/government-should-liquidate-itself
- The Anti-Federalist Warning About America’s Debt Crisis
Source: The Daily Economy
by Logan Tantibanchachai“Brutus feared that unlimited borrowing power would eventually overwhelm political restraint. Congress has accumulated 40 trillion reasons to reconsider that warning.” (10/05/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/the-anti-federalist-warning-about-americas-debt-crisis/
- Brazil on the Brink: Why Lula Is Down Against Bolsonaro Jr.
Source: Payday Report
by Mike Elk“With the Brazilian presidential election headed to a runoff, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is down 47% to 45% and faces a massive fight ahead. I wanted to give a quick analysis of what happened and where things are going next. Lula lost by only 2%, and several third-party candidates, who took a combined 8% of the vote, have publicly indicated they would not endorse Flávio Bolsonaro in the second round. Likewise, 29 million Brazilians did not vote in this round of the runoff and may be persuaded to vote for Lula in the second round if they fear Bolsonaro. While Brasil defeated Jair Bolsonaro narrowly in 2022, it swung right again, much like the United States. Voters are upset, and they are taking it out on the party in power.” (10/05/26)
https://paydayreport.com/what-caused-lulas-electoral-setback-how-he-could-still-win-the-runoff/
- A Democratic Senate Should Adopt Secret Impeachment Ballots on a Priority Basis
Source: The UnPopulist
by Andy Craig“The Constitution’s ‘indispensable’ remedy for a lawless president has been attempted four times and has never once succeeded. … The problem suggests a fix as simple as it is unglamorous: let the Senate vote on impeachment verdicts by secret ballot. Here is how it would work. On the final question of guilt under each article, senators would vote by secret ballot, with only the totals announced. Each senator’s vote would still be recorded and entered on the Senate Journal, as the Constitution requires. But that portion of the Journal would be sealed, published only after some reasonable length of time, such as 10 or 20 years. History gets the names. The president’s immediate ability to inflict political—or physical—punishment does not.” [editor’s note: Once that “sealing” precedent was established, how long would it be before the public could only know how “their representatives” had voted on ANYTHING until long afterward? – TLK] (10/05/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/a-democratic-senate-should-adopt
- Trump Watch, 10/06/26
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
“Political Candy and the Death of Conscience.” (10/06/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 10/06/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Another War? Trump Backstops Saudi Offensive On Yemen!” (10/06/26)
- Capital Record, episode 327
Source: National Review
“You Have to Earn It, Baby!” (10/06/26)
https://www.nationalreview.com/podcasts/capital-record/you-have-to-earn-it-baby/
- Advisory Opinions, 10/06/26
Source: The Dispatch
“What Is Originalism? | Interview: Sherif Girgis.” (10/06/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/advisoryopinions/what-is-originalism-interview-sherif-girgis/
- The Bryan Hyde Show, 10/06/26
Source: The Bryan Hyde Show
“Eric Peters from Eric Peters Autos joins me for our weekly conversation. We talk about the new ‘plague’ and voters asking AI to tell them how to vote in the midterm elections as well as why thinking for yourself is becoming the indispensible skill.” (10/06/26)
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 10/06/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Rages Over Sagging Rally Crowds as GOP Panics: ‘Five-Alarm Fire.'” (10/06/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/216245/trump-rages-shrinking-rally-crowds-gop-panics-five-alarm-fire
- The Kyle Anzalone Show, 10/05/26
Source: Libertarian Institute
“Trump Prepares for MORE War With Iran.” (10/05/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/blog/the-kyle-anzalone-show-trump-prepares-for-a-more-war-with-iran
- The Dispatch Podcast, 10/06/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Can the State Be Trusted With the Death Penalty?” (10/06/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/dispatch-podcast/can-the-state-be-trusted-with-the-death-penalty/
- Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 10/05/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“Mosquito-Borne Illnesses + a ’30-Cent Solution’ to the Global Water Crisis w/ Kurt Avery.” (10/05/26)
- NPR Politics Podcast, 10/05/26
Source: National Public Radio [US state media]
“The path to Senate control runs through this state.” (10/05/26)
https://www.npr.org/2026/10/05/nx-s1-5991467/the-path-to-senate-control-runs-through-this-state
- Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 10/05/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“US Resumes Refueling Saudi Fighter Jets After 8 Years, Tanker Attacks in Hormuz Escalate, and More.” (10/05/260
- Reason Roundtable, 10/05/26
Source: Reason
“Are the Cornell 7 Being Tried on Social Media?” (10/05/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/10/05/are-the-cornell-7-being-tried-on-social-media/
- Rising, 10/05/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave delivers his notes on the Cornell 7 and the condemning online discourse surrounding the story despite no conviction in a court of law.” (10/05/26)
- Sidewalk Civics, 10/05/26
Source: Brennan Center for Justice
“Can Congress be Fixed?” (10/05/26)
- The Daily, 10/05/26
Source: New York Times
“Midterm Surprise: Democrats Are Surging in Red America.” (10/05/26)
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 10/05/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Surprise! The Military Budget Is Much Higher Than You Think!” (10/05/26)
- TechTank, season 5, episode 50
Source: Brookings Institution
“Addressing ‘insider’ AI agents with Camille Stewart Gloster.” (10/05/26)
https://shows.acast.com/tech-tank/episodes/addressing-insider-ai-agents-with-camille-stewart-gloster
- EconTalk, 10/05/26
Source: EconLog
“Addiction, Faith, and the Limits of Willpower (with Meghan O’Gieblyn).” (10/05/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/addiction-faith-and-the-limits-of-willpower-with-meghan-ogieblyn/
- Ted Snider on The Scott Horton Show
Source: The Scott Horton Show
“Ted Snider on Why the War in Ukraine Isn’t Ending.” (10/05/26)
https://scotthorton.org/interviews/10-1-26-ted-snider-on-why-the-war-in-ukraine-isnt-ending/
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 10/05/26
Source: The Dispatch
“The Death of Homo Economicus | Interview: Nick Eberstadt.” (10/05/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/the-death-of-homo-economicus-interview-nick-eberstadt/